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BCP connived with Pilane to destroy BMD – Mmolotsi

Alliance for Progressives Vice President, Wynter Mmolotsi has accused the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) of conniving with Advocate Sidney Pilane to destroy the “original” Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD).

Mmolotsi was addressing the new political party (AP) members in Francistown on Saturday. He claimed that the BCP threw its weight behind Pilane faction and this, he said, compromised the outcome of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC)’s intervention in the BMD chaos.

He observed that the BCP’s motive was to end up being awarded Gaborone Central constituencies which will see the return of former Member of Parliament and party President, Dumelang Saleshando in Parliament. He said other constituencies which BCP stands to benefit are, Mogoditshane and Francistown South.

The arrival of the BCP into the UDC is seen by some in the Ndaba Gaolathe camp as one of the factors that led to the collapse of the BMD.  The BMD secretary General, Gilbert Mangole told the press late August that the coming of the BCP into the UDC is one of the reasons the BMD was in chaos because the other faction felt UDC could do just fine without the BCP which performed poorly in 2014 polls.

It was previously indicated that Ndaba Gaolathe did not see eye to eye with the BCP leader, Dumelang Saleshando and was of the view that UDC leader Duma Boko must not bring the BCP onboard. Gaolathe is said to have shared with those close to him that UDC‘s momentum post 2014 hype could bury and blow away the BCP from the political space.   Alliance for Progressives (AP) interim Secretary General Phenyo Butale who is also Member of Parliament for Gaborone Central told weekendpost in an interview on Tuesday that the BCP has always pushed the Modubule-Mangole faction to destroy the BMD.

 “Do you remember a phone conversation between Rammidi and Rakgare? Where former was saying they are supporting the Modubule-Mangole faction to remove us because they have been promised those 3 constituencies? Rammidi confirmed the said conversation on Duma FM, so Mmolotsi’s view  is informed by that fact,” he explained. Commenting on Mmolotsi‘s sentiments, BCP spokesperson, Dithapelo Keorapetse dismissed Mmolotsi’s views.

Keorapetse noted that the BMD factions failed to resolve their internal problems and now they want to blame external people. “It is not true what he said and if he said that, it is quite unfortunate because he ought to know that BCP members attended neither the BMD Conference in Ghanzi nor the Bobonong one where there was bloodshed,” he said. Keorapetse also pointed out that the position of BCP is for collective opposition against the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and hopes the Alliance for Progressives will be engaged in the near future for cooperation towards unseating the BDP.

“It is in the interest of the BCP that we have a strong and not a dismembered BMD pursuant to the spirit of opposition unity and strength. The BCP is also against proliferation of political parties because it weakens the opposition and minimizes its chances of dethroning the BDP,” he said.

PILANE WILL ALSO DESTROY UDC

Furthermore AP second in command observed that Advocate Sidney Pilane’s mandate in the political space was solely to destroy the opposition and delay regime change. He noted that after burying the BMD, Pilane will now cause chaos within the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). Mmolotsi shared that the best that other UDC parties can do would be to emulate the AP by quitting the UDC then form their own coalition without the Pilane BMD if they want progress.

“Pilane took his time strategically planning to destroy opposition parties. His initial target was to destroy the BMD and he has achieved his mandate. Now he is going for the UDC. He has already started the process of destroying the UDC,” explained the Francistown South lawmaker. Alliance for Progressives (AP) is expected to launch in Gaborone at Baisago University on October 28 this year.

The party will officially launch its logo and party colors on October 14. Purple will be the primary colour of the AP while navy blue and white will be the secondary colours. Mmolotsi further advised that the UDC leadership might end up having to form a new coalition without Pilane and BMD.

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ENVIRONMENT ISSUES: Masisi asks Virginia for help

24th March 2023

President Mokgweetsi Masisi says the issue of sustainable natural resources management has always been an important part of Botswana’s national development agenda.

Masisi was speaking this week on the occasion of a public lecture at Virginia Polytechnic, under theme, “Merging Conservation, Democracy and Sustainable Development in Botswana.”

Botswana, according to Masisi, holds the view that the environment is fragile and as such, must be managed and given the utmost protection to enable the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“It is necessary that we engage one another in the interchange of ideas, perspectives, visualizations of social futures, and considerations of possible strategies and courses of action for sustainable development,” said Masisi.

On the other hand, dialogue, in the form of rigorous democratic discourse among stakeholders presents another basis for reconfiguring how people act on their environments, with a view to conserving its resources that “we require to meet our socio-economic development needs on a sustainable basis,” Masisi told attendees at the public lecture.

He said government has a keen interest in understanding the epidemiology and ecology of diseases of both domestic and wild animals. “It is our national interest to forestall the dire consequences of animal diseases on our communities livelihoods.”

President Masisi hoped that both Botswana and Virginia could help each other in curbing contagious diseases of wildlife.

“We believe that Virginia Tech can reasonably share their experiences, research insights and advances in veterinary sciences and medicines, to help us build capacity for knowledge creation and improve efforts of managing and containing contagious diseases of wildlife. The ground is fertile for entering into such a mutually beneficial partnership.”

When explaining environmental issues further, Masisi said efforts of conservation and sustainable development might at times be hampered by the emergence and recurrence of diseases when pathogens mutate and take host of more than one species.

“Water pollution also kills aquatic life, such as fish, which is one of humanity’s much deserved sources of food. In this regard, One Health Approach imposes ecological responsibility upon all of us to care for the environment and the bio-diversity therein.”

He said the production and use of animal vaccines is an important space and tool for conservation, particularly to deal with trans-border animal diseases.

“In Botswana, our 43-year-old national premier pharmaceutical institution called Botswana Vaccine Institute has played its role well. Through its successful production of highly efficacious Foot and Mouth vaccines, the country is able to contain this disease as well as supply vaccines to other countries in the sub-region.:

He has however declared that there is need for more help, saying “We need more capacitation to deal with and contain other types of microbial that affect both animals and human health.”

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Masisi saddened by deaths of elephant attacks

24th March 2023

President Mokgweetsi Masisi has expressed a strong worry over elephants killing people in Botswana. When speaking in Virginia this week, Masisi said it is unfortunate that Batswana have paid a price with their own blood through being attacked by elephants.

“Communities also suffer unimaginable economic losses yearly when their crops are eaten by the elephants. In spite of such incidents of human-elephant conflict, our people embrace living together with the animals. They fully understand wildlife conservation and its economic benefits in tourism.”

In 2018, Nthobogang Samokwase’s father was attacked by an elephant when travelling from the fields, where he stayed during the cropping season.

It was reported that the man couldn’t run because of his age. He was found trampled by the elephant and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.

In the same year, in Maun, a 57-year-old British woman was attacked by an elephant at Boro and died upon arrival at the hospital. The woman was with her Motswana partner, and were walking dogs in the evening.

Last month, a Durban woman named Carly Marshall survived an elephant attack while on holiday in the bush in Botswana. She was stabbed by one of the elephant’s tucks through the chest and was left with bruises. Marshall also suffered several fractured ribs from the ordeal.

President Masisi Botswana has the largest population of African elephants in the world, totaling more than 130 000. “This has been possible due to progressive conservation policies, partnerships with the communities, and investment in wildlife management programmes.”

In order to benefit further from wildlife, Masisi indicated that government has re-introduced controlled hunting in 2019 after a four-year pause. “The re-introduction of hunting was done in an open, transparent and democratic way, giving the communities an opportunity to air their views. The funds from the sale of hunting quota goes towards community development and elephant conservation.”

He stressed that for conservation to succeed, the local people must be involved and derive benefits from the natural resources within their localities.

“There must be open and transparent consultations which involve all sectors of the society. It is against this backdrop that as a country, we lead the continent on merging conservation, democracy and sustainable development.”

Masisi stated that Botswana is open to collaborative opportunities, “particularly with identifiable partners such as Virginia Tech, in other essential areas such as conservation, and the study of the interplay among the ecology of diseases of wild animals and plants, and their effects on human health and socio-economic development.”

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Gov’t commit to injecting more funds in fighting HIV

24th March 2023

Minister for State President Kabo Morwaeng says government will continue to make resources available in terms of financial allocations and human capital to ensure that Botswana achieves the ideal of eradicating HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

Morwaeng was speaking this morning in Gaborone at the High-Level Advocacy event to accelerate HIV Prevention in Botswana. He said the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAPHA), in partnership with UNAIDS, UN agencies, the Global Fund and PEPFAR, have started a process of developing transition readiness plan for sustainability of HIV prevention and treatment programmes.

“It is important for us, as a country that has had a fair share of donor support in the response to an epidemic such as HIV and AIDS, to look beyond the period when the level of assistance would have reduced, or ceased, thus calling for domestic financing for all areas which were on donor support.”

Morwaeng said this is important as the such a plan will guarantee that all the gains accrued from the response with donor support will be sustained until the end when “we reach the elimination of HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 20230,” he said.

“I commit to continue support efforts towards strengthened HIV prevention, accentuating HIV primary prevention and treatment as prevention towards Zero New Infections, Zero Stigma, Discrimination and Zero AIDS related death, to end AIDS in Botswana.”

He reiterated that government commits to tackle legislative, policy and programming challenges that act as barriers to the achievement of the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat.

In the financial year 2022/2023, a total of 119 Civil Society Organizations, including Faith Based Organizations, were contracted with an amount of P100 million to implement HIV and NCDs prevention activities throughout the country, and the money was drawn from the Consolidated Fund.

Through an upcoming HIV Prevention Symposium, technical stakeholders will use outcomes to develop the Botswana HIV Prevention Acceleration Road Map for 2023-2025.

Morwaeng stated that government will support and ensure that Botswana plays its part achieving the road map. He said there is need to put hands on the deck to ensure that Botswana sustains progress made so far in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

“There are tremendous achievements thus far to, reach and surpass the UNAIDS fast track targets of 95%- 95%- 95% by the year 2025. As reflected by the BAIS preliminary results of 2021, we now stand at 95- 98- 98 against the set targets.”

“These achievements challenge us to now shift our gears and strive to know who are the remaining 5% for those aware of their HIV status, 2% of enrolment on treatment by those aware of their status and 2% of viral suppression by those on treatment.”

Explaining this further, Morwaeng said shift in gears should extend to coming up with robust strategies of determining where these remaining people are as well as how they will be reached with the necessary services.

“These are just some of the many variables that are required to ensure that as a country, we are well positioned to reaching the last mile of our country’s response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.”

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